In the display and merchandising of small items, merchandisers make widespread use of display hooks mounted on perforated panel board. A wide variety of such panel board display hooks are available to the trade, each having certain attributes deemed desirable to the trade. In most of the widely used forms of merchandise hook, a low production cost is one of the important considerations to commercial success. Typically, merchandise hooks of the type concerned herein include an elongated wire merchandise support element, which is attached to a base member or base assembly, which may be formed of metal plate, plastic or, in many cases, wire.
In the most preferred form of the present invention, an entire merchandise hook is formed as a unitary molding of a structural plastic material, providing for an extremely lightweight, low cost display hook. In addition to cost and production advantages, the unitary, all plastic merchandise hook has important safety advantages, because of the inherent resiliency and deflectability of the outwardly extending, elongated merchandise supporting element.
The inherent resilience and deflectability of the integral merchandise support element has, notwithstanding its important safety advantages, represented a major obstacle to the commercialization of a one piece, all plastic merchandise hook. In this respect, because of the inherent lightness in weight of an all plastic hook, and the substantial resilience and elasticity in the projecting merchandise supporting portion thereof, accidental contact with, and deflection of the merchandise support element could result in the entire merchandise hook aand its content being catapulted out of its mounting holes in the perforated panel display board. In accordance with an important feature of the present invention, however, a single piece, all plastic molded display hook incorporates an integral, self-locking element which, while effectively preventing accidental dislodgement of the display hook from a panel board, permits easy mounting and demounting of the hook without time consuming extra manipulations. In addition, the self-locking feature may be incorporated integrally into the molded, one piece unit without consequential additional cost.
More specifically, the self-locking feature includes the provision of an integral, flexible tongue, extending upwardly from the back edge portion of the base element, so as to overlie the front surface of the perforated panel board, more or less in opposed relation to the L-shaped mounting lugs by which the device is secured to the panel. The configuration and location of the resilient locking tongue is such that the tongue must be resiliently deflected in order to either insert the device into mounted position on a panel board or to remove it. The inherent resilience of the plastic material permits the locking tongue to be flexed out of the way to accommodate the mounting and demounting operations, but nevertheless effectively resists any accidental dislodgement of the device by reason of a momentary, unintended contact. The provision of the self-locking feature makes possible and practical the manufacture of a panel board merchandise hook as a one piece molding of structural plastic material.
Athough the invention is considered to have perhaps its greatest usefulness in conjunction with a one piece plastic molded device, the important advantages of the self-locking feature may be realized in other constructions of merchandise hooks. For example, in one well known, commercially available form of merchandise hook, a wire merchandise supporting element is associated with a molded plastic base. In accordance with one aspect of the invention, the molded plastic base of such a unit may be provided with an integral, upwardly extending flexible locking tongue, rendering the unit self-locking without consequential increase in the manufacturing cost.
In another advantageous form of the invention, a known form of all-metal pegboard hook, having a flat, sheet metal type base member, is provided with a self-locking feature by means of a simple, inexpensive, plastic attachment which forms an upwardly extending, resilient locking tongue. To advantage, the plastic attachment may be manufactured in the form of a continuous extruded shape, which is cut to length and applied to the otherwise conventional display hook.
In other contemplated forms of the invention, a base member may be formed of spring steel or other metal having sufficient inherent resilience to enable a flexible self-locking tongue to be provided as an integral part of the metal base.